Film | The Suicide Tourist, 2019

The suicide tourist, 2019

I wanted to watch to the suicide tourist because it stared Nicolaj-Costau Waldau. Jamie Lannister was my favourite character in game of thrones, and I haven’t been able to watch to the show again since that disappointing finale earlier this year (to say nothing of Jamie’s disappointing ending). I had never seen the actor playing a different role, so I thought it might be cool. I was not disappointed. 

Coster-Waldau is Max, an insurance detective who is diagnosed with a rapidly progressive Brain cancer. He is given a few months to live, a depressively robotic app that helps him keep track of his cortical functions and a deep existential crisis that leads him to contemplate suicide as a way out. Eventually he decides to seek the services of the Aurora hotel, a place he came in contact with when he was investigating the disappearance of one of his clients. The Aurora is a secluded facility that provides a very exclusive service: it helps people realize their suicide fantasies…

I have to admit I don’t usually enjoy movies about death and dying, but this one takes such a different approach! It’s not one of those movies that tries too hard to mimic the most horrifying aspects of life and death, rather, it embraces its metaphors and dives deep into a fictional story that is almost absurd at times. Kind of like the best of soft sci fi stories… It feels a lot like “The Lobster” in that regard. 

The Aurora offers a range of options for customers to meet their end: bullets, drugs, poison, you name it… There are also a wide variety of options for ways to dispose of the body afterwards. Circle of life seems to be a popular one, in which the remains are used to feed a plant of one’s choosing. There are stand in actresses to act as loved ones or enacted fantasies, and although they can – in theory – play anything, they act most often as mothers or prostitutes. It’s disheartening how unimaginative an entire gender can be, one of them says. 

Max's look reminded me a bit of Theo's mustache in Her...

Not all of the people in the Aurora are already dying, as is hinted by Ari’s presence, a young man who seems to have borderline personality disorder. The only requirement for admittance to the hotel seems to be that the client wishes to commit suicide. The reason why they want to kill themselves doesn’t matter much. And of course, there’s a catch. The Aurora is a bit like the Hotel California: “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” 

The one thing I didn’t quite like about the movie is that it felt… unfinished… It was a difficult script to finish to begin with, and I suppose some might interpret the ending as deliberately open ended, as to leave a lot to the imagination… There is nothing wrong with open-ended endings, of course, but there’s a way to do it right… Inception is an excellent example. The ending leaves a lot for the imagination, and can keep you talking after the movie for a long, long time, but it does not feel unfinished. Not at all… I don’t think this one managed that. 

Suicide tourism, as it turns out, is an actual thing, that is, the practice of having people travel to places where they can legally end their lives. It’s a bit of a problem in Switzerland, and there has been at least one documentary about it. Be that as it may, I like this better, this fictional approach to the topic. 

The whole weirdness of the movie makes for a compelling story, Max is a wonderful character, and none of it takes anything from the discussions that might be sparked by the story. Not to mention I really appreciate the opportunity to listen to other European languages, and I loved the way the movie keeps switching back and forth between Danish and English. All things considered, it’s a fine way to finish the first weekend of cinema fun. 

Selvmordsturisten, 2019   | Directed by Jonas Alexander Arnby / Written by Rasmus Birch / Nikolaj Coster-Waudal, Kate Ashfield, Tuva Novotny / Denmark